Another Indian behind NASA's success! Meet Bob Balaram who held the command of Helicopter Ingenuity
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- Shivani Shinde
Until yesterday, no one thought one day one space organization will fly a helicopter on another planet. But making that possible, NASAs helicopter on Monday took its first historic flight above the dusty surface of Mars. It is the first machine from Earth that had taken flight from another planet. The event inviting comparisons to the moment in 1903 when the Wright brothers flew an airplane for the first time on earth.
Until yesterday, no one thought one day one space organization will fly a helicopter on another planet. But making that possible, NASAs helicopter on Monday took its first historic flight above the dusty surface of Mars. It is the first machine from Earth that had taken flight from another planet. The event inviting comparisons to the moment in 1903 when the Wright brothers flew an airplane for the first time on earth.
But do we know the man behind Nasa's ambitious miniature robot helicopter Ingenuity? No! Then meet Indian-origin engineer Bob Balaram the man behind Ingenuity. He was the person who has given the concept of helicopter engineer. He had played a key role in the launch of the historic Ingenuity helicopter.
Balram is the chief engineer for "Mars Helicopter Project". He is currently leading the team developing anti, descent, and landing, ie EDL simulator for Ingenuity at NASA. He is responsible for leading the end-to-end technical activities that go into the design, implementation, test, and operation of the Mars Helicopter. Ingenuity is a technology demonstrator designed to prove controlled powered aerial flight for the first time on a planet besides Earth.
According to the reports, Balram first came across the idea of such a helicopter during a professional conference. During the conference, Stanford professor Ilan Kroo, a veteran in robotics technology, spoke about a miniature airborne vehicle for Earth applications called "mesicopter." That is when Balram thought of using the same on a place like Mars.
Balaram described the construction of the chopper as a perfectly blank canvas, but with restrictions. According to him, his physics background helped him envision flying on Mars, a planet with an atmosphere that is only 1 percent as dense as Earth's.
Balaram had studied B.Tech, Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras (batch 1975-80). In 1982, he completed his post-graduation in Computer and System Engineering from the RensselaerPolytechnic Institute and started preparing for Ph.D. He has been associated with Nasa for 20 years.
According to the reports, Bob Balaram was inspired by the Apollo Moon landings to take an interest in space exploration. In his 20 year tenure in NASA, Bob researched precision landing methods for Mars and also worked on advanced simulation techniques for planetary entry, descent, and landing (EDL).
Also Read: THEY FINALLY DID IT! NASA takes its first historic flight on Mars
Balaram is the second prominent engineer of Indian origin to feature in NASA's Mars Mission after Swati Mohan, who is the lead operations engineer of Mars Rover Perseverance. Mohan was the first to confirm that the rover had successfully touched down on the Martian surface after surviving a particularly tricky plunge through the atmosphere of the Red Planet.
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